There is huge disruption to flights ongoing after a blaze engulfed a substation powering Heathrow Airport last night.
The airport will remain closed today after the fires, which took place in Haynes, west London, left tens of thousands of homes without power and caused the evacuation of 150 people from nearby buildings, according to the BBC.
As Heathrow is one of the largest travel and transit hubs in Europe, thousands of flights have been affected with airport authorities warning of “significant disruption” over the coming days and not to make the journey to the airport “under any circumstances” until it has officially reopened.
A Heathrow Airport spokesperson said: “To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23:59 on 21 March 2025.”
“We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation,” they added.
“Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.”
Dublin Airport Authority’s Graeme McQueen told RTÉ that many passengers at the airport early this morning were unaware of the disruption and made attempts to rebook flights.
He warned that passengers planning to fly to Heathrow over the coming weekend should be prepared for the possibility of further disruption and cancellations.
In total around 70 flights to and from the island of Ireland could be cancelled today.
Ryan Air announced this morning that it would be operating “rescue flights” to try and help affected passengers.
Richard Tice MP claimed that the airport’s backup systems had been replaced in order to be “Net zero compliant”.
Speaking to GB News, he said that he had spoken to “an industry expert” who had told him that the airport had “got rid of their diesel generators”.
He went on to claim that the new “biomass generators” had “completely failed” and that the situation “beggars belief”.
In a document published in 2022 on Heathrow’s “Net Zero Plan” the airport said that stand-by power generation at the airport was at the time “using diesel”, however it is unclear if the generators in question had been upgraded at the time of yesterday’s blaze.
“Stand-by generators currently operate using diesel as they need an independent power source to maintain resilient operations. They are used predominantly as back-up power for airfield ground lighting. We are investigating renewable-based alternatives that can still meet the stringent performance criteria for such a safety critical airport asset.” it said.
The document also states that, “decarbonisation in the built environment is being driven by Government policy and tied to the UK Climate Change Act, which must deliver net zero by 2050. Important areas Heathrow is tracking include refrigerant regulations and continued strengthening of wider standards.”
Flight Radar said that today’s total closure of London-Heathrow will affect at least 1,351 flights to/from LHR.
“That doesn’t include any flights that might be canceled or delayed due to aircraft being out of position.” it said.
National Grid UK said the fire at its North Hyde substation “damaged equipment, leading to a loss of power supply in the area. We are working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible.”
It said it is working ato reconnect affected domestic customers and that as of 06:00 this morning, power has been restored to 62,000 customers, with 4,900 still without power at that time.